More than ever, I ask recipients of this blog to pass it on to others. Give them the link (www.jackspotpourri.com) ... or just copy and paste into your own Emails. Unabashedly, this posting is entirely political.
Some of it had already been distributed in various forms to politically active friends, but all recipients of this blog are still asked to pass it on to at least half a dozen contacts. Please. It can make a difference on Election Day. To paraphrase John Donne, "Ask not for whom the rooster crows. It crows for YOU. Wake up!"
Republicans! Please Read This
A word of advice to
Republicans in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as to those who, for one reason or another,
vote Republican: When You Sleep With Dogs, You Get Fleas!
The President, by virtue of his
vicious and irrational attacks on those who legitimately disagree with him, gives
encouragement to seriously disturbed individuals who go on to commit
violent acts, and therefore, he cannot escape
sharing in their guilt! He cannot take back
the words he speaks and the gestures he makes when he addresses “his base” at rallies. Donald J. Trump is their accomplice, whether or not he likes it and regardless of whether or not he is ever indicted for his encouragement of their illegal actions.
Wise up, Republicans! You have sold your party to the
devil! Evangelical Christians, especially, should be well aware of
this and repent before they too are consigned to join with him in Hades for
eternity.
Remember, Republican voters, when you sleep with dogs, you get
fleas!
From a recent posting on this blog, I include the
following: "After the February 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School, retired Supreme
Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in a New York Times op-ed piece, advocated
the repeal of the Second Amendment with these very logical words:
“Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the
security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which
provides that ‘a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a
free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be
infringed.' Today that concern is a relic of the
Eighteenth century.”
Now, don't Stevens' words make
sense in 2018? A Supreme Court which continues to believe otherwise is
also complicit in the violence made possible by their gross misinterpretation
of the Second Amendment.
Jack Lippman
Health Care is
the Decisive Issue!
Things
all Americans should know about the most important issue in the 2018 mid-term
elections which is, according to almost all polls, HEALTH CARE:
A Nine Point Primer on
Health Care in 2018
1. MEDICARE - In
1965, Medicare
came into being for seniors. It
is now taken for granted. But
Republicans want to chip away at what it provides, because they say it costs
too much and creates a deficit. Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell has targeted it (along with the Obamacare, Medicaid and Social
Security) in speeches on the Senate floor! I am not making this up. Take his word
for it! Republicans
will not admit that increases in the deficit are the result of 2018 tax cuts
for business and the wealthy. These are
what has ballooned the deficit, not Medicare!
2. MEDICAID - Medicaid provides health care for mostly poor
people through state programs. The
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) offers states money to improve their Medicaid
programs. This offer has been refused by
many States because it is an “Obama” program.
Although it costs the states nothing, many (including Florida) refuse to
accept this added money, preferring to allow the poor to suffer.
3. SINGLE PAYER - Most
Western industrialized countries have a “single payer” health insurance program
(call it “Medicare for Everyone”) with the government as the single
insurer. The taxes to pay for these
“single payer” plans are far less than the money we currently spend on our
patched-up program of health insurance from private companies and the government
which is paid for by the premium payments of insureds, their employers and taxation! But these countries’ “single payer” programs
are not “socialized medicine.” That would involve their doctors being
government employees and their hospitals being owned by the government. With some exceptions, that is not the
case. (Actually, our own Veterans
Administration programs fit that definition and are “socialized medicine,” and
most veterans in that system praise it.) But ”single payer” plans are not “socialized
medicine” despite what chronic liars like Trump and most Fox News people
say. They lie.
4. G.O.P. ATTACKS ON OBAMACARE - Republicans
in Congress have chipped away at the Affordable Care Act by (a) doing away with
its mandatory provisions (tax penalty for non-participants) eliminating many
young healthy people from the pool of insureds, resulting in the insurers
increasing the cost for everyone else, (b) made it more difficult for
Obamacare’s insurers to collect what is due them from the government, and (c)
made it more difficult for people to sign up for “Obamacare.”
5. PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS - Republicans
now claim to be in support of giving coverage to people with pre-existing
conditions, as the Affordable Care Act (and also Medicare) does, despite their
voting to repeal it 70 times over the past few years! Pure hypocrisy! They lie! With
“pre-existing condition” policy provisions, people with heart, kidney and
cancer histories would be left uninsured.
Republicans, including the President, are bald-faced liars, and have
fought giving coverage to those with pre-existing medical histories at every
possible opportunity. They are now lying,
saying they support what they have fought against for years, because it is
dawning on them that providing such coverage is extremely popular with most
Americans. They feel that it is better to lie than to lose. That’s the Republican way.
6. THOSE WHO "DO WITHOUT" - Minor health issues become expensive major ones when people
without insurance don’t get regular health care due
to not having the money to pay for it.
Emergency Rooms are no substitute for health care (as Florida
gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis suggests) and their routine use increases
hospital costs and insurance premiums for everyone else.
7. WHO PAYS FOR HEALTH CARE - Employers
got into the habit of providing health insurance during the Second World War
when salary increases were limited. They
gave employees health insurance instead!
Now they find this to be a tremendous financial burden and are stopping
doing it, leaving many uninsured.
Otherwise, its cost risks putting them out of business. What was once a
drop in the bucket is now a major budget item for them. Who will pick up this burden now? Tax-supported “single payer” insurance such
as “Medicare for All,” would be the solution.
Most Americans recognize this. Most Republicans do not.
8. BANKRUPTCY - The greatest single
cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is a family’s losing its money, savings and
home (through foreclosure) because of having to pay medical bills. This is even true of people with some insurance! A single payer “Medicare for All” program
would help resolve this. Expensive
private Medicare supplements are too expensive for many. While Medicare Advantage Plans, which are an
essential part of Medicare, may provide a financial solution for many, they
severely limit a patient’s choice of doctors and hospitals.
9. CHEAP HEALTH INSURANCE - Republicans, including the President, are pushing skimpy, cheap short-term health
insurance plans to replace the Affordable Care Act’s plans. These plans, originally intended for people
who were between jobs, do not cover pre-existing conditions, must be reapplied
for every year, are cancellable and have extremely limited benefits. They are, indeed, better than nothing, but even
suggesting them as a solution to our health care challenges is a sorry
statement to pitch to citizens of the world’s richest nation. But that is exactly what the Republicans are
doing.
* * * * *
After reading this, there is no alternative for Americans who
recognize Health Care as the pre-eminent issue in the 2018 Mid-Term elections
but to vote for every
Democratic candidate on their ballot and reject any Republican candidate. It is that simple.
If
any Republican, including Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan or even Donald Trump
wishes to contest anything appearing above, they can Email or telephone me. My
number is in the book. Their response
(or those of anyone else) may appear in a future posting. I know they will not, however, because what
appears above is the truth, and Republicans are well aware that their positions
are based on lies.
JL
The Grand Tsunami
As we get closer and closer to the mid-term elections, it becomes
clearer and clearer that the important issues which will draw Democratic and
independent voters to the polls are (1) Health Care, (2) An
economy producing “real jobs,” not just minimum wage dead end positions and
(3) Reducing gun violence.
But there is a strong and powerful current energizing Democratic
efforts in all three of these areas. It is the participation of the many
women who are feeling, for the first time, a sense of empowerment which extends
into the voting booth. There are more women running for local, state and
national office than ever before. Women far outnumber men among the
volunteers making telephone calls, registering voters, knocking on doors and
participating in demonstrations.
Historians will note that this is the time when women stepped out of
the background and assumed a role equal to men in our society. Look at
the women in high corporate positions such as Susan Sandberg at Facebook and
Mary Barra at General Motors. Look at the extreme popularity of the Hulu
TV series, “The Handmaid’s Tale” and the novel which inspired it, surgically
analyzing the role of women in society. Look at important films such as
“The Wife” where the title character played by Glenn Close is identified as the
real writer of her Nobel Prize winning husband’s books and “A Star is Born”
where the woman ultimately displaces the man as the leader in their artistic
partnership. All of these represent the end of the era of women being “used” and
the recognition of their innate talent and power.
Look at the correspondents, anchors and panelists on TV news
programs. Many, if not most, are now women where years ago, men
prevailed. At the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings regarding
Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment, recall the roles played by Democrats Diane
Feinstein, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. Contrast this with the
stubborn and graying old men who represented the Republicans on that Committee.
During the 2016 Republican nominating process, Donald Trump repeatedly
insulted former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and got away with it.
He didn’t like the way she looked. His continuing disrespect for women is
well documented, and his Republican colleagues and lackeys just look the other
way. Well, they cannot get away with that with the women who are voting
in 2018. No way! It’s a tough new world in
which backward looking conservative Republicans cannot stop the grand tsunami of
woman voters which will turn the tide in the 2018 mid-term elections and help to save
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from being attacked, along with
“Obamacare,” by reactionary Republicans.
This will be “the Year of the Women” at the polls. BE PART OF
IT. Men, too, are invited.
JL
JL
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Jack Lippman
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